In 1995, early in the development of the global internet, sociologist Michael Schudson imagined how people might process information if journalism were to suddenly disappear. An expert on the history of US news media, Schudson speculated that peoples’ need to identify the day’s most important and relevant news from the continuous torrent of available information would eventually lead to the reinvention of journalism.
Beyond daily gossip, practical advice, or mere information, Schudson contended, people desire what he called “public knowledge,” or news, the demand for which made it difficult to imagine a world without journalism.
Nearly thirty years later, many Americans live in a version of the world remarkably close to the one Schudson pondered in 1995—because they either lack access to news or they choose to ignore journalism in favor of other, more sensational content.
By exploring how journalism is increasingly absent from many Americans’ lives, we can identify false paths and promising routes to its reinvention.
— source projectcensored.org | Andy Lee Roth, Mickey Huff | Oct 20, 2022
